Here is a great segment on a new book by Charlie Sykes, 50 Rules Kids Won’t Learn in School. You can pick up the book on Amazon for just about $13 bucks. You can listen to the audio here or by clicking on the audio file in the Bonus Box on the right…

Bonus Box

Here’s Amazon’s description of the book:

Charles J. Sykes offers life lessons that are not included in the curriculum for most children today: honest advice about what they will encounter in the “real world” post-schooling and how their parents can help them best prepare—not with cushy self-esteem talks, but rather with honest challenges. His 50 lessons are frank, sometimes harsh, and often hilarious, including:
#1 Life is not fair. Get used to it.
#15 Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping. They called it “opportunity.”
#43 Don’t let the success of other depress you.
#48 Tell yourself the story of your life. Have a point.
Sykes elaborates on each of his points, creating a wise, no-nonsense guide for parents to help their children help themselves.

This is one of the most concise demonstrations I have seen about the immigration issue. The discussion is primarily fueled by one of my personal favorite studies (I know, I’m a nerd): Demographics.

Now, if you are unfamiliar with demographics, your first reaction to the numbers might be something along the lines of, “yeah, but statistical projections can’t really be trusted as reliable.” Actually, I would totally agree with this statement for nearly all projected studies – EXCEPT studies concerning demographics. Demographic Trends are the one area where predictions can actually be trusted as accurate. Here’s the simple reason why:

Let’s say you are trying to predict the amount of actual (ethnic) Italians there will be at some future date. All you have to do to predict the number there will be in, say, 20 years, is to look at the number of Italian births today and the current birth rate. The number of future Italians obviously cannot be greater than the number of current Italian births. Human babies do not multiply. Most likely – the future number will be smaller, due to deaths or inverse immigration.

You can now clearly see why demographic projections can be trusted. Of course – like all projections, the numbers are not 100% accurate – but the prediction of trends will be true, given that changes in birth rates do not take place.

So with that in mind – please consider the following demonstration carefully.

Oh – and one very important thing to point out first (Beck mentions this in the full clip): This discussion IS NOT Anti-Immigrant. This is exactly what you will be told, though, when this issue is discussed in the media and by some politicians. “Anyone who is anti-immigration, dislikes, and is against immigrants.” This is absolutely false and deceptive. The truth is – a persons outlook on immigrants, is a completely separate issue from their thoughts on immigration policy. As Beck puts is, “If you get angry [at the numbers and ideas presented], don’t get angry at immigrants. If you’re angry, the place to put your anger is on public officials who have set immigration numbers without regard to their effect on American people.”

I won’t give this one away – but let me just say that if this is what they had played in the theater – I would have absolutely loved the Prequels and I would completely recant anything negative I’ve ever had to say about George Lucas…